Free White Oak

I was recently at my local steel distributer, where steel comes from overseas by ship then trucked into the supplier, There before me was a pile of 2” x 8” x 9’ White Oak planks that were used as dunnage between stacks of steel. So I got me 12 pieces and took em home to clean up for future projects.

-- Good, Better, Best--Never let it rest---Always make your Good be Better & your Better Best

This weekend, I purchased a few tons of wood pellets for the stove this winter. Each pallet holds one ton that they load with a forklift. I take it home and transfer the bags to the garage, then return the empty pallet when I get the next load. Most of the pallets are really crappy pine with lots of bark showing.

However, one of them was white oak. The planks were about 5/8” thick rough sawn with a bit of bowing on each one. I thought about keeping it, but decided there were too many embedded rocks. I didn’t want to risk my planer blades over a small amount of oak. I threw it on the pile with the other empty pallets. It was gone when I came back about an hour later. All of the pine pallets were still there.

That pallet was nowhere near as great of a find as 2”x8”x9’ planks. Good haul. Hopefully they have more the next time you visit.

One thing you might want to be careful of is insect infestation. The emerald ash borer and the Asian long-horned beetle both came here in pallets and dunnage, and both are set to decimate hardwood forrests in this country. Look them over carefully.